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Praetorius recorders

Michael Praetorius - The Syntagma Musicum

First, let me clarify that, although having derived the entire family of recorders from the originals preserved in the Kunstistoriches Museum in Vienna, signed HIER.S (probably Hieronimus Salombron of Venice, according to research by Armando Fiabane), I prefer to call them "Praetorius Recorders" in tribute to the man who first described this type of instrument and documented their use in consort.

Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet - Praetorius recorder consort
In the third volume of his "Syntagma Musicum" entitled "De Organographia" (published in 1618), the German composer, organist, and music theorist Michael Praetorius reports for the first time the presence of very large recorders, namely a bass and contrabasses in Bb and F, and very small ones such as sopranos in D and C and a sopranino in G. Although Praetorius wrote his treatise around 1613-1615, he makes no mention of newly developed instruments; rather, it refers instruments which were very popular at that time and also, probably, in the 50-60 previous years. Given the presence of these extra large and small instruments in numerous collections and museums throughout Europe, we can say that they were more-or-less standard during the Renaissance period.

Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quortet - Praetorius recorder consort
Between the 16th and 17th centuries, many makers made such instrument, notably Bassano, Schnitzer, Rauch von Schrattenbach and Hieronymus Salombron (HIE·S, HIER·S, HIERO·S and HIERS).
Instruments of this type are available from our workshop in the following sizes at the pitches A = 460 (pitch of the originals) and 440 Hz:
sopranino in f’''
soprano in d''
soprano in c''
alto in g’
alto in f’
tenore in d’
tenore in c’
bassetto in g
bassetto in f
basso in C
contrabasso in F